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Toad light Wiring Glitches

November 29, 2012, 11:39:29 pm

While driving to San Antonio I stopped at a rest area and noticed that there were no running (tail) lights on the toad, despite the coach lights being on.  However, the turn signals worked, so I pushed and wiggled the connectors at both ends and the lights came on.  So, I continued on.  When we arrived in S. A. the lights were out again; this time they wouldn't come on.  I am going to give the entire harness a good cleaning and spray the contacts with corrosion-X before we drive the rest of the way down to Mission, TX.

There is another long-standing issue with the toad wiring that I haven't been able to resolve:  Even when the running lights and turn signals worked, the toad brake lights wouldn't come on when the coach brakes were activated.  I replaced the diode box (can't remember what it's called) tucked behind the rear bumper.  That didn't help.  The coach end is a 6 pin (5+1) connector, but toad end is a 4 pin connector.  When Smitty's of Houston first installed the wiring to a separate bulb in the tail light, I am sure the brake light came on, but somewhere along the way it stopped working.  I replaced the wiring harness with a new one and still the light won't illuminate when the coach brakes are hit.

When the auxiliary brake (Brake Buddy) is activated the regular brake lights come on. 

Does anyone have a suggestion regarding the brake light issue?

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Re: Toad light Wiring Glitches

Reply #1 – November 30, 2012, 12:03:36 am

Don, I would start by testing the bulbs, then work my way up to the coach by testing each and every component with a voltage tester or just using my battery charger until I knew for certain everything is working correctly in and on the toad. Then check the coach wiring with a 12V tester.

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Re: Toad light Wiring Glitches

Reply #2 – November 30, 2012, 12:37:50 am

Check the signal for the brake light at the coach connector. The brake light activation by the brake buddy isn't relevant.

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Re: Toad light Wiring Glitches

Reply #3 – November 30, 2012, 01:55:40 am

FWIW,
A more knowledgeable friend of mine always when I have had trouble told me to "check the ground wire connection".  This may be helpful.  Hope works for you.

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Re: Toad light Wiring Glitches

Reply #4 – November 30, 2012, 12:16:43 pm

With your DVM do a continuity check of each wire in the harness that connects the coach to the car.

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Re: Toad light Wiring Glitches

Reply #5 – November 30, 2012, 05:36:46 pm

Check the pin on the coach. Sometimes they crush together and you lose a contact. Put a thin knife between them and open it up a bit and see if that does the trick.. Checking the continuity too is a good idea on the cable. Mine had a loose wire on the connector a bit ago too.

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Re: Toad light Wiring Glitches

Reply #6 – December 01, 2012, 06:57:07 pm

I can't get to the bottom of my issue.  Coach had a 4 way round receptacle mounted under the bumper but further back on the wiring tucked up under the coach was a 5 wire connector (see photo).  My new toad had a set of lights mounted to the spare tire holder with wire run up to the front with 4 wire flat connector.  I had to replace the guts of the round connector on coach due to bent pins.  I wired it as per the instructions but couldn't get the toad lights to do anything but blink dimly in unison no matter what I was trying to do.  Moved the wires all around with same result.  Just out of curiosity, I removed the flat to round adapter at the coach end and stuck the four wires from coach side (white, green, red and black) into the white, green, brown and yellow on coach side.  Turn signals worked, parking lights worked and four ways worked.  Brake lights did not work.  Any guesses as to what's going on?

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Re: Toad light Wiring Glitches

Reply #7 – December 01, 2012, 07:57:34 pm

Sounds like it needs to have a 3 to 2 taillight adapter as believe your coach has the amber turn signals

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Re: Toad light Wiring Glitches

Reply #8 – December 02, 2012, 05:06:49 pm

Thanks.  That was it.  I cut out the rat's nest the PO had going including what I thought was the 5 to 4 converter but it was a 3 to 2?  All is good now and it looks a lot better.

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